Syllabus 
Course Description: This course examines the emergence of biology as a scientific discipline since 1750, focusing on the cultural context and social impact of changes in biological knowledge. We will look at changing conceptions of life, the institutionalization and financial support of biological research, and how interactions with the physical sciences have shaped life sciences. Aspects of biology covered will include natural history, cell theory, eugenics (and its relationship to genetics), evolution and Darwin's contribution of natural selection, molecular biology, and the recent ascent of biotechnology.
Course Requirements The course readings each week are divided between secondary source readings, which will complement the lectures, and primary source readings, which will be a focus of precept discussions.
Grading:
One-quarter of the final grade will be derived from precept participation, reflecting attendance, involvement in discussions, and reading responses. The rest of the final grade will be derived using the following proportions:
Midterm exam 25%(Seniors may opt to not take this midterm.)
Final exam 30%
Paper 20%
Precept participation 25%Texts:
A course reader is available at Print-It, 12 Witherspoon St. In addition, the following books are available for purchase at the University Store, if you want your own copy (they are also on reserve in Firestone):
Charles Darwin, On Evolution (Hackett, 1996).
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Bantam, first published 1817).
James D. Watson, The Double Helix (NAL Dutton, first published 1968).
J.E. de Steigneur, Age of Environmentalism (McGraw Hill, 1997).
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Houghton Mifflin, first published 1962).
Richard Lewontin, Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA (HarperPerennial, 1991).
Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995). optional
Diane Paul, Controlling Human Heredity: 1865 to Present (1995) optionalThe following books are for the paper and you only need one:
Evelyn Fox Keller, A Feeling for the Organism (W.H. Freeman, 1983).
Kenneth Manning, The Black Apollo of Science (Oxford Univ. Press, 1983).
Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith (first published 1924).
Carol Muske Dukes, Saving St. Germ (Penguin, 1993).
Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (W. W. Norton & Co., 1981).
